NEW DELHI: The Centre today told the Supreme Court (SC) that it is not possible to block online games like the ‘Blue Whale Challenge’ as they are not app-based games.

The SC then directed the chief secretary of all States to spread awareness among students about the potentially deadly game.

The ‘Blue Whale Challenge’ gained notoriety when news broke that it was allegedly responsible for the deaths of over 130 youngsters in Russia.

The top court had sought the government’s response on a plea seeking to firewall such violent games. The government’s response came days after the apex court in October asked it to set up a panel of experts to block life-threatening online games. The plea was filed by an activist and advocate Sneha Kalita, before a bench headed by Chief Justice Dipak Misra.

The ‘Blue Whale Challenge’ was termed a ‘suicide game’. It manipulated impressionable teenagers to complete a series of challenges, like listening to ‘dark songs’ and self-harming, and ultimately persuaded them to commit suicide.

Terming the ‘Blue Whale Challenge’ a “national problem”, the SC had earlier directed state-run Doordarshan and private television channels to help create awareness about the deadly game, by telecasting the dangers of the game in their prime time programmes.